Aside from schoolwork, my extra-curricular college experience has been grounded by primarily one thing: money - or rather lack thereof. The more fortunate of us are lucky enough to have help from our parents, others have to work, and the least fortunate are required to rely on the good graces of friends for drinks and dining halls for food.
I must admit that a night on the town loses some of its enjoyment when one has to drop at least 20 bucks, often as much as 30-40 in order to eat at a restaurant, get some drinks, gain access to a bar/club, and buy a couple for the cutie next to you. This may seem like a typical casualty of Boston, or any other major city for that matter, but we should not fall victims to high prices right next to a college campus, especially not in Davis Square!
Davis Square has been up and coming since the advent of the T stop in the 1970s. And while urban revitalization is always good, when does gentrification become too posh, and turn against the institutions and community that created it?
The average prices at many of the restaurants in Davis Square are above and beyond anything the college kid can afford. Orleans and Gargoyles, to name a few, are way above the college limit. 420 Highland just opened, and Antonia's, a frequent date stop, is under new management and enacted a $16 minimum per person; there seems to be no stop to the trend. Even restaurants with entrees less than $20 like Diva and Out of the Blue still pose a significant expense for the evening. To add insult to injury, Fusion Express, a great (and one of the more reasonably priced) restaurants in Davis just closed!
Davis Square has let us down. If you go into most towns situated near a college campus, you are bound to find happy hour specials on either food or drinks. Tufts does not have that much presence, but perhaps there should be some type of discount to lure in under-funded people - perhaps some college discounts? Not all of us are financed by mommy and daddy, but we want to have fun too! Instead of five dollar pitchers and half priced appetizers 'til 10 p.m., we get Diva lounge with $10 mixed drinks and cloud-like neon lights, complete with a stupid red carpet and red rope that screams pretentious.
To confirm my suspicions that an evil force is ruining Davis, one of the last and truly great deals of Davis Square has recently been lost. Upon updating their menu, Joshua Tree, for reasons unknown, revoked their half price wings during Sox games special, thus losing me as a customer forever. In a subsequent phone call and angry email to J-Tree managers, they were surprised to hear of this misfortune (um, are they not the ones in charge?) and promised an investigation. But alas the damage had been done.
Davis Square is not completely ruined. Redbones still has great food, Mike's Restaurant recalls a time past, albeit with only so-so food. And of course there is always Anna's, while Spike's Junkyard Dogs is bucking the trend by coming to Davis. For the uninitiated, their hot dogs have revolutionized the after-bar experience in Allston, and at their location in Providence, Brown students swear by them.
Those bars and restaurants that do offer a good time or good food at a reasonable price are always packed. The Burren on Thursday night is jammed. I am willing to bet the only time Diva Lounge was ever full was when Social Monkey worked out a special promotion for free Vodka drinks. As people slowly learn that El Guapo has cheap beer, free chips and salsa (and I might add, a pretty good singer on Wednesday nights at no cover), it is becoming more and more packed. Tufts students want these discounts and Tufts will support these institutions that cater to us. And I'm willing to bet, the surrounding community will too.
Michael Garshick is a senior majoring in economics. He is a staff writer for the Daily's Arts section.
